The subject of the invention is a cutting device and a film dispenser.
Rolled-up films such as plastic wrap, for example, which are used in private households or in the catering sector, are often stored in containers made of cardboard or corrugated board. As a rule, such containers are also configured at the same time as dispensers from which film sections can be pulled out and severed by a separating device.
The patent application CH 699230 A2 discloses a film dispenser which comprises a housing having such a separating device. The housing is manufactured as a disposable container made of cardboard or corrugated board. The separating device comprises a separate plastic profile which is fastened to the upper front edge of the housing, and a cutting device, having a cutting blade, mounted in a displaceable manner on this plastics profile. The housing and separating device of such film dispensers are comparatively stable and easy to use. However, compared with film dispensers which are manufactured from thinner cardboard and comprise a tear-off edge as the separating device, the material outlay and production costs are much higher. From an environmental point of view, there is also room for improvement for such dispensers, if they are used as disposable devices which are disposed of after all of the store of film has been used up.
WO2006096187 discloses a further film dispenser, the housing of which is configured as a folded cardboard box. A longitudinal gap in the lid or generally in a longitudinal wall of the folding box serves as a guide means for a cutting device. The cutting device comprises a neck having two blades which is arranged between a foot part and a head part. The foot part and head part are much wider and longer than the width of the guide gap, which corresponds approximately to the width of the neck transversely to the cutting direction. In such film dispensers, even a slight rotation of the cutting device during displacement along the guide gap can cause the front blade in the displacement direction to damage the longitudinal wall of the folding box adjoining the guide gap. This undesired effect is particularly pronounced when the folding box is manufactured from comparatively thin-walled cardboard and/or when the cutting device is mounted with too much play on the longitudinal wall having the guide gap.
In order to attach the cutting device to the longitudinal wall at the guide gap, the cutting device can be configured in two parts, wherein the foot part is fastened to the neck from the inside by a snap connection after it has been guided through the guide gap in the longitudinal wall from the outside. The production and assembly of such cutting devices directly on the housing are complicated and expensive.
Alternatively, the longitudinal gap can comprise a larger opening at one of its ends for introducing the cutting device. This requires unnecessarily long housing lengths and also harbors the risk of cutting devices jumping out of the guide in the region of the openings and being lost.